Jennifer Lee
Principal, Obra Architects
Metro Region: New York
Member Since: 2022
Jennifer Lee AIA LEED AP BD+C founded Obra Architects in 2000 in New York with Pablo Castro FAIA. She is a graduate of Harvard College cum laude and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and has taught at Pratt Institute Graduate Architecture, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union, and Korea National University of Arts. She is the 2022 John Q. Hejduk Award, 2007 Cooper Union Urban Visionary Emerging Talent, 2006 NYFA Fellow, 2003 SAH de Montëquin Senior Fellow, Seoul City Public Architect selected by Seoul Metropolitan Government and also, with Obra, a designated contract recipient of NYC’s Department of Design and Construction Design Excellence program. Jennifer Lee is a licensed architect in NY, NJ, DC, MD, and a LEED-Accredited Professional USGBC. Based in New York City, Obra Architects is an international architectural design and planning firm, working on projects of urban and community impact that create socially sustainable buildings and environments. Obra is committed to searching for the unique opportunity to develop a singular architecture—one that is not dull or insensitive to the needs of people, but rather manages, through sensitive design, to be both intelligent in construction and generous in living potentialities. The firm is actively entrepreneurial and operates to try to advance the way architecture impacts communities and environments. At the same time, the work aims to originate from pragmatism and realism that harnesses local energies and inspired clients and institutions seeking change through architecture, design, and urban planning. The firm has produced award-winning projects recognized by the AIA, Chicago Athenaeum, Kim Swoo Geun Preview Prize, and the Architectural League of New York, among others. The work of Obra has been exhibited widely including at MoMA, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, National Art Museum of China, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Rhode Island School of Design, as well as the Frac Centre-Val de Loire in Orléans, CAMPO Rome, and Architektur Galerie Berlin. A recent public space project commissioned by MMCA Seoul, entitled Perpetual Spring or The Climate-Correcting Machine, can be viewed at www.perpetualspring.org.